Federated identity management can be used by an Internet service provider to provide single sign-on between different portals and services. Single sign-on provides end-users with the ability to log into an initial service and move freely between affiliated services without having to login again after the first login. Once logged in to an initial parent service provider, the end-user can logoff once and automatically be logged out of all of the affiliated services. The end-user's browser session remains active as long as the end-user interacts with one of the affiliated services.
In order to have a secure single sign-on system that works with multiple service providers, single sign-on may be implemented within an identity provider server. Typically, the identity provider server can include a single sign-on username and password that is associated with each customer and is established during a registration or provisioning process. The identity provider server can also include a list of participating service provider servers that a customer can access. The list of participating service provider servers can provide a way to associate individual single sign-on accounts to specific applications or services.
In general, identity provider servers are separate from any portals and application/service provider servers. In the situation where multiple identity provider servers are included in a data network, a service provider server may not know which identity provider to use when authenticating an end-user login. As such, if the service provider server transmits the login information to the wrong identity provider server, the end-user will not be able to login.
Accordingly, there is a need an improved system and method of locating identity provider servers in a data network.